moblogUK, the British mobile picture blogging service, is planning to roll-out a national moblog site in conjunction with a South African media operator. The London company, which allows users to send mobile photos to weblogs and creates user-generated content opportunities for music and movie marketers, started in 2003. Founder Alfie Dennen revealed to me: “We are in talks with a large South African media owner - they are massive, they own cinema chains - to provide an iteration of our software to create a regional version of moblogUK. South Africa is very important because, after India, it’s the second largest in the world for people using the internet over mobile.”
Dennen did not identify the JV partner (South African cinema chains include Primedia-owned Ster-Kinekor and Johncom-owned Nu-Metro), but has licensed moblogUK’s Participation Toolkit technology platform to UK broadcaster Channel 4 for what could become one of the longest-running TV-centric user-generated content communities. Big Art Mob, a series about public art, is not due to air until April 2008, but will next month launch a year-long moblog encouraging members of the public to photograph, then add meta- and geo-data for public artworks - the aim is to “create the largest map of UK public artworks”, Dennen said, refusing to reveal financial terms of the deal. Meanwhile, moblogUK’s website is due to be relaunched on March 31 along with the launch of a moblogUK Technology arm dedicated to licensing Participation Toolkit.